Ads

Presidential Profile: Putin

Dmitri Medvedev’s replacement of Vladimir Putin as Russian President has left a legacy of tightened government controls of Russian media organizations, opposition parties, and financial institutions, and questions about how much influence Putin will retain as Prime Minister.
Putin was born in Leningrad on October 7, 1952. His grandfather was a cook for the notorious former dictator Joseph Stalin. A former director of the KGB, Russia’s secret police organization, he quickly rose to positions of greater political power.
In 1999, Putin was elected deputy prime minister and later became president, beginning his second term on March 14, 2004.
During his years as president, Putin’s tough policy toward rebel guerrillas in Chechnya ensured his popularity with the Russian people.
Putin has had reservations about achieving his stated goal, “freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of the press, the right to private property-these basic principles of a civilized society will be protected.
Garry Kasparov, a member of a growing movement against the Putin and the Kremlin, was jailed after a peaceful rally opposing Putin’s policies.
Since the end of the Cold War, over 40 journalists have been killed for speaking out against the Kremlin, some of them under Putin’s administration. Putin allegedly orchestrated the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist critical of Russia’s involvement in Chechnya and Georgia. The story sparked international outrage, and such acts against freedom of the press and public speech are seen as proof of Putin’s failure to achieve his goals of protecting the “basic principles of a civilized society.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia entered a period of economic turmoil that ended with the Putin presidency.
Since Putin’s rise to power, Russia’s oil exports have allowed Russia to increase its foreign reserves by $458 billion dollars in the past eight years and foreign investment has tripled in the past three years.
TIME magazine, however, listed Putin as Person of the Year for 2007. “He stands, above all, for stability’€stability before freedom, stability before choice, stability in a country that has hardly seen it for a hundred years, TIME wrote.
Putin has proven himself as a strong leader for the Russian people, earning an approval rating of 80 percent, an astonishingly high level of support in any nation.
Despite sharp criticism from Russian political opponents and the international community, Putin’s support from the public following reforms he made will make him one of the most influential leaders in Russian history.